Thursday, March 24, 2011

Ricky Martin performs for Target staff despite Lady Gaga anti-gay row

Fresh from winning a GLAAD award following coming out, Ricky Martin has performed at a meeting of the managers of Target, the US retailer criticised for supporting homophobic political groups.

Earlier this month, Lady Gaga walked away from an exclusive deal with the retailer after the company allegedly continued its past practice of donating to right-wing anti-gay causes.

The deal with Lady Gaga was itself only agreed after intense negotiations over the company’s policy to donate considerable sums to organisations that support those who discriminate against or even advocate death and violence to gays.

The company agreed to “make amends” for past behaviour by instituting a committee that would in theory prevent these sorts of donations occurring in the future and to donate to LGBT causes.

“That discussion was one of the most intense conversations I’ve ever had in a business meeting,” Lady Gaga said at the time. When she walked away from the deal, Lady Gaga’s spokesperson said it was so that the star could remain “true to her audience”.

Now the Minneapolis Star Tribune reports that Ricky Martin joined Jennifer Hudson on stage at the day-long meeting of more than 10,000 managers of Target stores.

Martin has had a deal to promote his music in-store since January of this year.